Chandigarh: Women leaders, a cabinet minister, sitting MLAs as well as OBC and kisan morcha chiefs are among scores of leaders who revolted against the BJP within hours of the party releasing its first list of 67 candidates for the upcoming Haryana assembly polls on Wednesday (September 4) evening.
So far, the BJP has been facing revolts in as many as 12 assembly constituencies. The number is likely to increase given that the party dropped as many as nine sitting MLAs while changing candidates in another half a dozen seats in its first list.
Moreover, candidates for the remaining 33 seats are pending.
The party – which has ruled Haryana for two consecutive terms since 2014 – is already facing an uphill task in the upcoming polls due to rising anti-incumbency and the Congress’s resurgence.
Poll analysts believe that if the BJP fails to contain the rift ahead of the October 5 polls, its poll prospects may suffer.
Among the prominent faces to resign from the party is state power minister Ranjit Singh Chautala. He was reportedly miffed at being denied a ticket from the Rania seat in Sirsa district, which he won as an independent in the last election. He later joined the BJP.
The son of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal, Chautala will again fight the upcoming polls as an independent from Rania, against the BJP’s official candidate Shishpal Kamboj.
Ticket to outsiders and party hoppers miffed BJP leaders
What has miffed BJP leaders is tickets given to outsiders and party hoppers at the cost of dedicated party workers.
BJP state kisan morcha chief Sukhvinder Sheoran, who was a contender for the Badhra constituency in Charkhi Dadri district, told The Wire that he resigned from the party because an “outsider” had been imposed in the seat.
“I would still have stayed in the party if the BJP had chosen any other local leader. But an outsider leader is not acceptable. Hence, I have resigned along with 400 supporters,” he said.
Sheoran won on a BJP ticket in the 2014 polls but lost to Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) leader Naina Chautala in 2019.
In another jolt to the BJP, former minister and president of the state unit’s OBC morcha, Karan Dev Kamboj, resigned from all party posts after the party denied him a ticket from the Radaur constituency in Yamunanagar district, which he contested in 2019.
The BJP replaced him with former Indian National Lok Dal leader Shyam Singh Rana, who joined the party in July.
Kamboj wrote in his resignation letter that the BJP had strayed from its basic ideology propounded by Deendayal Upadhyay and Syama Prasad Mookerjee.
He further wrote that while committed workers like him were sidelined, party hoppers joining the party on the eve of the assembly polls were rewarded with tickets.
When contacted, Kamboj did not say much except that his options were open.
He may contest independently from Radaur. In 2019, he won over 50,000 votes and lost by a small margin of 2,500 votes to the Congress’s Bisan Lal Saini.
Meanwhile, the party is also facing a revolt in the Uklana assembly seat in Hisar district, where local leader and ticket aspirant Seema Gaibipur resigned after the BJP gave a ticket to sitting JJP MLA Anoop Dhanak.
Seema told The Wire that they had warned the party that they would not tolerate any outsider or party hopper as their candidate. But the party sidelined local workers and did not consult anyone before ticket to Dhanak.
She said there was a lot of resentment among local party workers because of this decision. “All our options are open now,” she added.
Bachan Singh Arya, former BJP minister and strong contender for the Safidon assembly seat in Jind district, may also fight independently after the party replaced him with former JJP MLA Ram Kumar Gautam, who recently joined the BJP.
Arya lost the seat in the 2019 state polls by a margin of 3,500 votes and expected the party to renominate him as he claimed to have worked hard here to ensure the BJP’s victory this time.
Speaking to The Wire, Arya’s close aide Ram Pal said that he has called a meeting of his supporters on September 7, where he will take a final call on his future strategy.
Savitri Jindal among prominent women leaders upset
In its first list, the BJP also did not give tickets to two prominent women leaders – former cabinet minister Kavita Jain and Savitri Jindal, who is Kurukshetra MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal’s mother.
Jindal was hoping for the party’s nomination from the Hisar assembly segment. As the party nominated its MLA and minister Kamal Gupta instead, she announced she would fight independently from the seat.
She told the media that the people of Hisar were asking her to contest the elections from there. “If they give me this kind of respect, I will have to honour their decision. Once I say something, I never back out,” Jindal, who topped Forbes’ list of richest Indian women with a net worth of $35.5 billion, told reporters at her residence in Hisar.
Meanwhile, Kavita Jain, who is a two-time MLA from Sonipat, also revolted against the party after she was denied a ticket and replaced by Nikhil Madan.
Jain was caught on camera crying profusely on Wednesday night after her name did not figure in the list for Sonipat. She and her supporters gave the party a two-day ultimatum to change its candidate. She won from Sonipat in the 2009 and 2014 polls but lost the 2019 polls.
One sitting MLA also resigned, another mulling it
Laxman Napa, the BJP’s sitting MLA from Ratia in Sirsa district, resigned from the party after it replaced him with its former Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal. Napa has already announced plans to join the Congress.
He told the media today there was positive feedback for him in every survey that the party conducted, adding that even though he had the support of 80 to 90 sarpanches who told him in writing that he had their support, the party did not give him a ticket.
“When the party did not consider a worker like me, there was no reason for me to continue in the BJP. Thus, I submitted my resignation,” said Napa.
Meanwhile, Bishamber Singh Balmiki, a minister of state with independent charge for the social justice, empowerment, welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes and Antyodaya (SEWA) portfolio, also called a meeting of his supporters at his residence.
He is the sitting MLA of the SC-reserved Bawani Khera seat in Bhiwani district, from where the party has nominated Kapur Valmiki.
